A mandala is a repetitive flowing design inside a circle. Creating a mandala is a way to express our thoughts and feelings in a harmonious healing way by combining our physical and emotional worlds together in a work of art.

A mandala can be used as a tool for meditation and therapy, or just a way to feel calm while doing a pleasant activity such as colouring in harmonious flowing pictures.

Mandalas are another activity that can assist with expression and validation of thoughts and feelings. They enable the children to find a way to express themselves other than verbally,and allowing parts of their inner selves to come forward in a safe manner. This can assist with helping them to understand what they are feeling.

The children can learn about mandalas by colouring in the template below, this can help them learn about the flow and patterns of the mandala and about applying colour. They can go on to creating their own mandalas by using the starter template below.

Below are two examples of mandalas created by children in our Chill Skills for Kids class.

http://pathofcalm.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/chill-skills-logo-with-picture-in-the-left-for-website-cropped.jpg00adminhttp://pathofcalm.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/chill-skills-logo-with-picture-in-the-left-for-website-cropped.jpgadmin2013-08-15 00:44:552013-08-15 00:44:55Hints on how to help children relax

I find this illustration calming to look at, I hope you do also. Watching a sunset can bring us back to the present moment. When we are back in the present moment, what can happen is that we stop worrying about what is going to happen in the future and what has happened in the past.

When we are not living in the present moment are mind is everywhere else and not where we are physically, this can lead to stress and anxiety. Just by simply taking 5 minutes out in nature to stop and breathe can bring back a sense of ease.

I have included the accompanying text for this illustration from the book, Imagine Me with The Three Owls. This page of the book can be read on its own just as a lovely relaxing activity, to help assist with imagining a special place to be in nature and feel relaxed.

Excerpt from Imagine Me with The Three Owls

Look at all the beautiful colours of the sunset and how each color blends into the next one.

There are many different shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and gold.

We had a great time at the Health Harmony Soul expo last weekend and met some wonderful people. We are so excited to be bringing Chill Skills for kids to Canberra. We met some really great people who are interested in our Chill Skills for kids classes and teacher training workshops coming up in Canberra.

Sparkles the unicorn is a really popular item from our new range of prints on our on-line store, “The Positive Thoughts Collection”.

Sparkles, is one of the characters from the story, “The Beach” on our “Meditation for Kids” CD, “he is called sparkles, because he has sparkles around him all the time”. The message that Sparkles delivers is “Believe”, this word can have different meanings to each individual, it depends on what you want it to mean. It can easily be turned into a positive thought, or (affirmation), e.g., “I believe in myself.”

This positive thought ties in with the theme of our new book, “Imagine Me with The Three Owls”, which is self-acceptance.

To accept ourselves is to believe in ourselves, then we can shine and show our magic just as Sparkles the unicorn does. Remember, be yourself, you are special because there is only one you, when you be yourself you can discover who you really are and find that inner peace and shine bright like Sparkles does.

As a parent you owe it to yourself and your children to take care of yourself. Emotionally, spiritually and physically, you are sharing all of these valuable aspects of yourself in being a parent. It’s important you find ways give to yourself what you need.

This can mean time out. By simply putting aside some time each week for yourself, to do the things that you enjoy. This time should be treated with the same importance as your other commitments, for example, you could schedule that time into your diary as you would other appointments, this also assists you to plan and manage your time efficiently. You don’t have to put aside a lot of time, it could simply be time out for a massage, lunch or coffee with a friend. Keep it simple and achievable, that way it becomes regular and doesn’t feel like you are taking too much time out of your day. Instead it will become an essential part of your day as you will be re-scheduling self care back into your days.

It is essential that you have a good support network, both professionally and in your private life. Support can be in the form of someone to call when you need to talk through things. Professionally it could be someone else in the same industry as you that understands your business.

Privately it can be a friend or relative that you can call when you need to just talk about things. Also seeking of guidance and support from a professional therapist is essential if you feel that you are not coping; e.g., counselling, psychologist, alternative therapies can also be beneficial e.g. acupuncture, Reiki and holistic counselling.

Ideally seek out regular on going therapies that will assist to maintain a balance in your life, such as massage, aromatherapy, meditation, acupuncture, etc. Of course, engaging in regular physical exercise and eating a healthy balanced diet is important to our emotional and physical wellbeing.

We have the very exciting news that our children’s picture book, Imagine me withTheThree Owlswill soon be ready for release!

Allan and Lisa will be doing a live interactive workshop with Hay House Radio, should be a HOot. Hope you can join us, we will be sharing with you ways in which the book can be used for kids. Apart from the obvious, that is chilling out, relaxing and having fun, we will share our experiences of working with kids.

Hope you can join us

Dates and times to be announced, we will keep you posted.

From Lisa and Allan.

http://pathofcalm.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/chill-skills-logo-with-picture-in-the-left-for-website-cropped.jpg00adminhttp://pathofcalm.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/chill-skills-logo-with-picture-in-the-left-for-website-cropped.jpgadmin2012-11-15 02:49:002012-11-15 02:49:00Hoo Hoo, soon to be released childrens picture book, Imagine Me with The Three Owls.